


As It Fell, You Rose To Claim It

by Finduilas



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-06-19
Updated: 2011-06-19
Packaged: 2017-11-05 15:40:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,133
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/408133
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Finduilas/pseuds/Finduilas
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Danny is tired of Steve's behavior.</p>
            </blockquote>





	As It Fell, You Rose To Claim It

**Author's Note:**

> Title came from Adele's Set Fire To The Rain.  
> Many many many thinks to m_l_h for the beta and the encouragement.  
> I guess it's somewhat hurt/comfort cliché, but it's something that I had to write down. Steve an Danno have eaten my brain.

Danny wonders if he’ll ever understand this man he calls his partner as Steve continues the silent treatment and puts his badge down on the desk just a little too roughly.  
  
Chin’s been smiling ever since he saw Danny straining but get up after his fall, which is quite a rare sight, and Kono’s been babbling ever since they got in the car, letting her relieve over Danny’s well-being wash over everyone.  
  
Steve, however, hasn’t said a word, except for the occasional grumble. Danny can see the tension build up in his body with every move of a muscle. And the longer Steve refuses to speak to Danny or even look at him, the more the anger is rubbing off on Danny. Danny’s waiting for Steve to say something, to indicate even the slightest bit that he’s somewhat happy that Danny’s still alive, but all he’s getting in return is the silent treatment that seems to drown out Kono’s babbling.  
  
Danny takes a deep breath, then flinches as he feels as if his ribs are puncturing his lungs. Sure, paramedics can swear they’re just bruised, it doesn’t really help Danny with the pain. He rubs his hand over his temple, feeling the slight stickiness of the dried and almost completely cleaned up blood there.  
  
‘That’s the last time I’ll fall out a storey high window,’ he thinks to himself, as Kono finally seems to run out of chatter.  
  
Steve walks past Danny, almost bumping into him as he makes his way to the coffee machine, but still not giving Danny the time of day and if there’s one thing Danny’s not good at it’s keeping things bottled up and keeping his mouth shut, so he doesn’t really surprise himself when he lets out a much too loud sigh and snaps at Steve, “Okay, what the hell is your problem with me?”  
  
Chin and Kono sort of freeze mid action and all eyes are on Steve, but Steve just clenches his jaw and finally looks at Danny as he inhales sharply through his nose.  
  
“See, I thought you’d be happy I was still alive,” Danny goes on, waving his arms around as much as his bruised body will allow, but before he goes on Steve’s voice thunders sharply through the room.  
  
“Happy?! Happy that you’re the biggest moron on earth?!”  
  
Steve’s voice is filled with anger and Danny has to suppress a flinch as he says, “Moron?”  
  
“Yes,” Steve replies sharply, “I told you to stay put, I told you to wait for me to get there, but you just don’t listen and throw yourself out a fucking window!”  
  
“Throw myself?” Danny’s matching the volume in Steve’s voice as he fumes, “Throw myself out the window? Maybe you weren’t paying attention, but I can assure you I wasn’t just having a lazy moment and decided to skip the stairs. I got thrown out that window by the suspect.”  
  
“And that wouldn’t have happened if you’d stayed put like I told you to!” Steve bellows.  
  
“Right, ‘cause you’re the master of following procedure, and you never get hur…,” Danny starts but Steve cuts him off.  
  
“Fuck procedure, Danny!” And Steve is full on yelling now, “I don’t give a crap about that. But your idiocy nearly got you killed today!”  
  
“Idioc…?” Danny has to swallow down his pride but he is in no way thinking of letting Steve get away with talking to him like this, “And just how many times have you gotten yourself almost killed on this job? How dare you be mad at me for this? That suspect was getting away and you weren’t there yet, so yeah, I followed him, and yeah, I got made and he threw me out the fucking window. But he’d have gotten away if I had stayed put, and…”  
  
“Then he got away!” Steve snaps, as if he doesn’t understand what part of his logic Danny isn’t following, “Then he fucking got away, who cares?”  
  
“Wait,” Danny put his hands up as much as his injured body would allow, “You’re mad at me because we caught the bad guy??”  
  
“Danny,” Steve starts, and his name has never sounded so razor-sharp and bitter and so far from the ‘Danno’ he is getting used to.  
  
“No, seriously,” Danny interrupts, “Because I’d like to know why exactly I’m being yelled at like I’m some kid being called into the principal’s office.”  
  
“I’m yelling because you got hurt!” Steve says with a tone that states he can’t believe he actually has to explain this.  
  
Danny blinks a few times before countering, “You get hurt all the frickin’ time…” Danny’s hands are open in a gesture that shows he has completely lost Steve’s train of logic.  
  
And then the anger falls out off Steve’s voice and makes place for something that Danny can only describe as surrender as he says, “Then I guess you don’t even remotely feel the same way I do…”  
  
And before Danny can process the words, Steve is out the door, leaving an vast silence floating behind.  
  
~~~~  
  
“What did you do?”  
  
Steve spins around at the sound of Danny’s voice.  
  
“How did you get in here?” Steve asks, a shard of glass crackling underneath the sole of his boot as he shifts his feet slightly.  
  
“You didn’t lock the door, Sherlock,” Danny says, his eyes fixed on Steve’s hand, “What did you do?”  
  
Steve looks down at his hand, knuckles somewhat bloody from where the glass has cut them. The frame of the mirror is lying broken on the hallway floor, shards spread out with tiny drops of blood on them.  
  
“You felt left out ‘cause for once, you weren’t the one being hauled off in a ambulance today?” Danny asks as he steps into the kitchen, looking for a clean towel. Steve follows him silently.  
  
“Or just got pissed ‘cause the mirror didn’t think you were the prettiest of them all?” Danny continues as he takes Steve’s bloody hand in his, cautiously guiding it under the stream of running water in the sink.  
  
“Why are you here?” Steve asks with a clenched jaw.  
  
“Well, I was having a lovely day at work,” Danny starts, turning off the tap and covering Steve’s hand with the towel, “But then I got thrown out of a window – yes, thrown, I didn’t jump, thank you very much – and instead of my boss being a bit gentle with me – like you’d normally do whenever someone gets hurt…” And Danny carefully swipes the kitchen towel over Steve’s knuckles as he continues, “Case in point… My boss freaked out and started to yell at me.”  
  
A sigh escapes Steve’s lips but Danny continues before Steve can interject, “Instead of just talking to me like a normal human being would, he screamed in my ear and made me feel very unloved…”  
  
“Dann…” Steve starts without delay, but Danny brings his finger up to Steve’s mouth, cutting him off as he looks him straight in the eye and says, “Contrary to what he finally said.”  
  
Danny lets his finger fall, gives Steve a poignant look before removing the towel and placing it on the kitchen table as he turns away from his partner.  
  
“Think maybe we can talk now?” Danny asks finally and he feels Steve’s nod more than he sees it out of the corner of his eye.  
  
“Maybe I shouldn’t have yelled?” Steve offers, leaning back against the countertop, flexing his fingers faintly.  
  
“It’s not true, by the way,” Danny says as he opens the fridge door, taking out two bottles of beer, handing one to Steve.  
  
“What?” Steve asks, warily accepting the beer as well as the conversation they finally seem to be having.  
  
“That I don’t feel the same way as you,” Danny answers, and continues just as quick, “Well, maybe it is true, ‘cause I’m not actually sure what it is you’re feeling. But the way you implied it, if you think that it means I don’t care about you then it isn’t true.”  
  
Steve is still holding on to the unopened beer, trying to make sense of what his partner has just said.  
  
“Why did you do that, by the way?” Danny asks, gesturing his head towards Steve’s hand.  
  
“I…” Steve shuffles from one foot to the other, and ducks his head as he admits, “I may have put my hand through the mirror.”  
  
And Danny lets out a sound that is very close to a snort, “You may have done that, eh?”  
  
“I was pissed,” Steve offers.  
  
“Why?” Danny asks and Steve just shakes his head and says, “You know why, Danny…”  
  
“Yeah,” Danny answers, more firmly now, “But I’m started to get sick and tired of this… of this… subtext.”  
  
“Subtext?” Steve pulls a face again, and Danny goes on, “Yes, subtext. All this… implying but never actually getting anything said. I mean, what the hell is wrong with us? I give you crap all the time about getting injured, you don’t ever take it into account. And then, yes, I get stupid once and get flung out of a window and you act like you’ve never had a man down before! I mean, you were in the freaking army, Steve, you…”  
  
“Navy,” Steve mutters under his breath but he knows better than to interrupt Danny when he’s on a roll.  
  
Hands are punctuating every word now as Danny continues, “You’ve dealt with this shit before. But for some reason, you see me take a fall and first you don’t give me the time of day, then you freak out on me and nearly bite my head off, and then you put your fucking hand through a mirror! And I, for one, would like to know why!”  
  
“You know why, Danny,” Steve repeats, suddenly very aware of his clammy palms, his shuffling feet, and his throat going irritatingly dry.  
  
“And I’m saying I’ve had enough,” Danny’s gaze is dead-serious, and his voice drops soft but solid, “And I need you to say it.”  
  
Danny has set the challenge but Steve feels trapped somehow. It’s one thing to admit it to himself, but to Danny? Yet Danny isn’t backing off. He is standing in front of Steve, not quite in his personal space, waiting for Steve to say something. To say the words.  
  
Steve swallows, he desperately wants to say something, but he feels lost for words. He starts to panic a bit, thinking ‘what if he can’t say it? What if he can’t say what Danny wants to hear, and he fucks it all up?’ And Steve thinks maybe Danny can see the panic is his face, but maybe not because he goes on, “Because if you don’t say it…” Danny shrugs a bit, “… I don’t know if it’s true.”  
  
“It’s true,” Steve finally manages to get out, and he’s thinking that he can do this. He can be a bit more like Danny, he can put feelings into words, he has to.  
  
“I saw you fall and I was angry… and scared,” Steve mutters, “I thought you might die. And that scares the shit out of me. And I was so pissed at you, ‘cause you didn’t listen, ‘cause I need to be there… I need to be there to back you up, to stop these things from happening. When I’m not there…” Steve’s voice drops to a whisper as he feels his entire body tense up, “… people I care about die.”  
  
And Danny swears he’s never seen his partner so exposed, so fragile.  
  
“I can’t have you die, Danno,” Steve whispers, and Danny takes both of Steve’s clenched fists into his own warm hands.  
  
“I won’t,” Danny says, faintly squeezing Steve’s fingers.  
  
And Steve nods a bit, bites back the sting in his eyes.  
  
“Danny, I do l…” Steve starts, nearly choking on the words, “I…”  
  
But Danny hushes him, wraps his arms around Steve’s big frame and pulls him in tight, “It’s okay, you don’t need to say it.”  
  
Steve leans in, his arms tentatively brushing against Danny’s sides, “No, I do, ‘cause you need to know. ‘cause you don’t know if it’s true…”  
  
And Danny feels like kicking himself because he went about this all wrong and he realizes that he almost broke Steve, and he never meant to do that.  
  
“No, it’s okay,” Danny whispers, hands sliding over Steve’s back, “I was wrong. I don’t need you to say it. I can feel it’s true.”  
  
And Steve finally sinks into Danny’s touch, his own arms encasing Danny’s body, his face buried against the warm skin in between Danny’s neck and shoulder, and as Danny’s scent fills his lungs, he feels like he can breathe for the first time. And suddenly it all makes sense and words come naturally.  
  
“I love you, Danno.”


End file.
